Google team up with Dummies.com for Knol promotion

If you’ve never read one you’ve more than likely seen the bright yellow covers of the Dummies books on book store shelves. Now Google has teamed up with the how-to book range to promote its knowledge service Knol.{ad}

The promotion centers around a competition called “Knol for Dummies.com”. All you have to do is write an article on an activity or subject you already know well. Google are hoping this will bring more authors to Knol and generally increase its popularity with readers too.

If you want to enter you have until March 23rd to make a submission. The Dummies.com judges will then go through the articles and select five finalists. Those five articles will then be posted on Dummies.com before a final winner is chosen who will receive $1,000.

Submissions have already started being made for the competition with subjects ranging from how to make your Wii into a Media Center right through to how to live a healthy life.

Matthew’s Opinion
I have to admit that when Knol first appeared I had a look at a few pages and then never went back. Using Wikipedia is such a natural thing to do now if I want to learn some information that I forgot about Knol completely. I think it is safe to say that is generally what is happening at the moment.

The problem is two-fold. Wikipedia has a huge head start on Knol meaning there is a lot more information it has to offer so it forms the better resource. The second problem is one of Google’s own doing – they haven’t promoted the service aggressively. This competition looks to be the first steps towards changing that non-promotion, but it needs to be continued with further advertising, competitions, and general backing for Knol if they want it to succeed.

I doubt Wikipedia is going to be removed from the top spot any time soon, but Knol could turn into a great competitor that offer us a second opinion on the facts.